


Party in the USA

by sunkelles



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: COVID-19, Gen, Pines Family Bonding, Quarantine, Trump Got the Rona, minor mabifica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26827966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: After months of quarantine disrupting their junior year of high school, their annual summer in Gravity Falls, and the beginning of their senior year of high school, Dipper and Mabel get a call from their Grunkles.At least Trump got Covid. There's that.
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Ford Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28





	Party in the USA

**Author's Note:**

> i decided that i was going to let myself write fic today so i sat down and i just wrote the pines family bonding over quarantine stuff and trump getting covid. it made me grin. maybe it'll make you grin too

Dipper had been dreaming about his senior year of high school for years. He was supposed to spend his last summer as a high schooler with Mabel and his grunkles in Gravity Falls. He was supposed to come back and be president of the school robotics club and take physics and chemistry and all the other classes that he needs to pad his resume for MIT. He was going to take marching band and throw popcorn at his friends on the bleachers and not watch football as they goofed around in the band section. 

But… this year didn’t have that in the works for him. 

The spring of his junior year was spent at home, no friends, no prom, no activities- nothing. The summer was spent at home, for fear of them taking the virus to their quickly aging grunkles. And the fall has been spent… online. At home with their ever-increasing frustrations nearly causing the house to pop like a pimple.

This summer he was supposed to make fun of Mabel and Pacifica for being overly sappy as a couple and Grunkle Ford was supposed to help him work on his college essays. It wasn’t supposed to be October and they still can’t leave the house and he’s wondering if there will even be colleges to go to in the fall. 

At least the big orange fucksack caught the Rona, though. That’s a source of laughter, right? Some levity in all this shit. 

Dipper hears a knock on his door, the frantic, rhythmic knock that means that it’s Mabel instead of his parents. 

Since it’s just Mabel, he doesn’t bother switching from the tab with his favorite twitch streamer to his fake homework tab as he calls out, “come in!” Mabel rips the door open and holds up her sparkly smartphone. 

“GRUNKLE STAN CALLED!” she shouts, holding the phone out to him. Grunkle Stan’s face is plastered across the screen, squinting at the screen. 

“Mabel?” he asks, “where did you go?” Mabel grabs Dipper's chair and rolls him away from his desk. Then, she shoves the phone into Dipper’s hand. 

“Oh,” Grunkle Stan says, stifling a smile, “it’s you.” Dipper rolls his eyes. 

“Hi Grunkle Stan,” he says. 

Stan turns around and shouts over his shoulder, “Dipper’s on!” He hears a sigh from across the room, but then he hears footsteps. Ford leans over Stan’s shoulder, and then nods as he makes eye contact with Dipper. 

“I don’t have much time to talk,” he says, “but I needed to say hi.” 

“Big project?” Dipper asks. Ford’s eyes crinkle as he nods. 

“The biggest,” he says, “I think I’ve finally figured out more about some of the creatures here. I’ll keep you updated on Journal Number Four.” Dipper nods. He knows that Grunkle Ford gets very involved in his work (even more so than Dipper most of the time) and he’s not about to keep the guy away from it. 

“I expect an email soon,” he says sternly. Ford grins as he leaves the frame again. Stan, as predicted, rolls his eyes. 

“Does it count as burning the midnight oil if it’s 9:45 PM?” he asks. 

“It does when you’re that old” Mabel calls out, putting her head on Dipper's shoulder. 

“Mabel!” Dipper calls out, trying to squirm out of her grasp, “get off me!” 

“Never,” she asserts, then she tickles him. Dipper has to elbow at her and nearly drops the phone onto the ground. He can’t see Stan, but he can hear him laughing his ass off on the other end. 

Dipper’s elbow collides with Mabel’s stomach, and she groans. 

“Bro,” she says, “that’s too pointy!” Dipper rolls his eyes. 

“Don’t tickle a guy if you don’t wanna get stabbed,” he says. Stan croaks out his last laugh. Then, Dipper narrows his eyes. 

“Why did you call, anyway?” he asks. Sure, Dipper loves his Grunkles, but neither of them are too great at keeping touch. Most correspondence between the four of them comes from Mabel. 

“OH!” Stan says, “I can’t believe I forgot to tell you! Did you know the orange bastard got covid?” The orange… bastard? 

“Do you mean Donald Trump?” Dipper asks.   
  
“Yeah, the sentient pile of pubic hair finally got the thing he gave the whole damn country. Hope it kills him too.” Dipper honestly wasn’t expecting that. He and Mabel had never really talked politics with the Stans. 

“Grunkle Stan,” he says, “I had no idea you hated him so much.” Most people hate the country’s most pathetic excuse for an elected official, but he kinda thought Grunkle Stan wasn’t one of them. 

“He’s _bad_ at conning people and he’s out there hurting people,” Stan says, “what’s not to hate?” Dipper smiles softly. Mabel pushes her way back into the frame. 

“When he dies,” she says, “can we all sing _Taking Over Midnight_ together? It’s a good way to ward off zombies. I think it’ll make sure he stays dead.” Dipper laughs, and Stan just grins in Mabel's direction.

“Sure, kid,” he says, “and I’ll make sure to get my baseball bat. Then I can smash through his homophobic head for you.” Mabel smiles, and though it doesn’t shine the way it did when she still had her braces it’s still a sight to behold. Stan glances down at his phone. 

“Looks like it’s getting pretty late,” he says, “I’d better get my old bones off to bed before the Rona finds me too.”   
  
“That’s not how it works, Stan,” Ford’s voice calls from off screen. 

“Oh, shut it,” Stan growls at him. He smiles at the kids. 

“I gotta go, though,” he says, “stay safe.” 

“You too,” Dipper says. Mabel leans her head on his shoulder. 

“Love you guys!” she says. Stan grins. 

“Love you too, kid,” he says, “both of you.” Then he reaches his hand forward and hangs up the phone. Then suddenly, their piece of Gravity Falls away from Gravity Falls has hung up on them and it’s just Dipper in the middle of his gaming chair and Mabel leaning on the arm. It’s just them, college applications, online school, and Covid. Reality bites. 

Dipper turns to face her. 

“Do you think we’ll get to see them this summer?” he asks. Mabel bites her lip. 

“I don’t know,” she says, “they’re getting pretty old, and if Covid’s not gone yet….” Dipper sighs. 

“I just want to go home, you know?” he asks. His room might be done up in the latest fandom stuff at home, with a gaming chair and all his books and video games and a few stuffed animals he won’t admit to having… but it never quite feels like home the way that he and Mabel’s terrible little shared attic bedroom does. 

“I know,” Mabel says, “I hope we can too. Hm. Maybe we can make a deal with Bill to kill Covid.” Dipper grimaces. 

“Don’t even joke about that one,” he says. Mabel shrugs. 

“Come on, Dipdop. These are the jokes."

“Well,” Dipper says, “at least wait on that deal until after it takes Trump out.” Mabel grins again. 

“I think I can manage that,” she says. Then, Mabel gets off the chair and slips her phone phone into her shorts pocket. 

“I’m going to bed,” she says, “so don’t stay up all night, okay? You’ve got your first zoom at 8.” 

“I know, I know,” Dipper says. 

“And breakfast will get cold.” 

“It’s cereal and milk,” he says, “it’s always cold.” Mabel grins, and she twirls around as she leaves him alone. Dipper sighs as he turns back to his tab and settles back into his chair. 

He wishes that he found the stream exciting. It’s just hard to get excited about anything, with everything in his whole life so up in the air. 

Dipper takes a deep breath, and thinks about Gravity Falls. For his own sanity, he’s going to assume that things will be better this summer and that he can go back home. He needs to live in a world where that can happen. If not, he's not sure he's going to get through this year.


End file.
